It’s episode 19 in our weekly video series and this week we take on a topic near and dear to Coach Dean’s heart. As a Certified Mental Games Coach, Dean knows a thing or two about preparing athletes mentally to race.

This week we look at issues have to do with the mental aspects of running:
— How much of running is mental?
— What is mental toughness?
— How do first time marathoners differ from everyone else?
— Strategies for focusing in the last miles of a long run or race
— Dealing with mental barriers
— Pre-race anxiety

Coach Dean is also taking a survey on this issue and would love to get your feedback. Click here to take a short the survey on your needs as an athlete.

This video is part of our Desert Series, in which Coaches Joe English and Dean Hebert get their lips smackin’ about all things marathon running. There are over 30 episodes in the series and they come out every week on www.running-advice.com.

To watch the video, just click the play button in the video window below.

There’s much more coming. We’ve filmed over 30 episodes in this series and we’ll be rolling them out each week. To visit our video page with links to all of the episodes in the series, click here.

Running Advice and News
www.running-advice.com

Coach Dean Hebert

Contributing Editor Coach Dean Hebert has embarked on a new project to gain greater understanding about athletes’ needs in regard to their mental preparation for competition. Dean is announcing a joint project with Dr. Patrick Cohn, in which they are collaborating on mental game training materials specifically designed for runners, duathletes, triathletes and endurance athletes.

Here’s a note from Coach Dean asking for your participation in a survey:

The first step is to get some feedback on what aspects of the mental game YOU want to learn more about and HOW you would like to learn it (CD, podcast, eBook, DVD, etc). So, if you have just three minutes please click here to access the survey.

From time to time, I like to check in with you and other readers to ask a few questions about your mental game. This way, I can help you better with your top mental game challenges in track and field, running, or racing. But to help you better, I need your input! I need you to complete a short survey about the mental game challenges you (or your athletes) face in track and field.

Coach Dean Hebert

Here’s a question from a reader named Lauri:

“My 15 year old son’s cross country coach is telling the kids they should run everyday of the year….something called consecutive day training. My training suggests at least one day of rest or change in exercise to avoid injuries. Is there some research about this especially with young runners?”

Before we jump in to the answer, let’s start with some training fundamentals. Improvement comes by stressing the body then allowing it to recover. Or to put another way, We break down the body and then allow it to rebuild. It is during this rebuilding phase that compensation for our weaknesses takes place and the body rebuilds itself stronger than the previous state. That is what we call the “training effect”.

Thinking about the training effect then, the body needs to be put under stress AND allowed to rest in order to improve. If we were always resting, we would lose conditioning. If we are continuously breaking down the body (stressing it) then we’ll end up, over-trained, burnt out, unable to improve and likely on the path to injuries.

To continue reading, click here.

Coach Joe English

You are a runner. You define yourself as a runner. It’s your sport, your thing. Everyone at the office notes that you scramble out the front door in a pair of shorts and running shoes at lunch, even when its raining. They talk about the fact that you’re one of those “fit” people, perhaps with a bit of jealously in their tone.

You think about your races and are probably asked often, “so what’s your next one” and you’re only too eager to answer the question. In fact, if you get you started, you’ll talk about running all day. Your avatar on Second Life is probably wearing running shoes and your Facebook page might be tattooed with a “I do 26.2″ on it. While you’re not addicted to running, it certainly defines you in some way.

Yet, let’s put this in perspective. For all the talking, thinking, planning and day-dreaming you do about running, how much of your day is actually spent running? For the vast majority of you, you probably devote about one hour per day or less to actually running. Sure, you do long runs on the weekends that take longer than an hour and you have rest days or cross-training days too where you won’t run at all. So on-balance it probably comes out to about an hour a day.

An hour a day.

To continue reading, click here.

EUGENE — With the 2009 Outdoor Track and Field Nationals in the books, here is a wrap-up of some of the top running performances at the event as reported by USATF.

Symmonds wins Nike Men’s 800m, named Visa Athlete of the Meet
Eugene area resident Nick Symmonds won the most dramatic race of last year’s Olympic Trials at Hayward Field, and he continued his success here this afternoon in being named the Visa Athlete of the Meet following his dramatic win in the Nike Men’s 800 meters.

Symmonds began the race in his customary place near the back of the pack before building a sizeable lead coming off the final turn. 2004 Olympian Khadevis Robinson, who finished fourth at last year’s Olympic Trials, began closing on Symmonds down the stretch but didn’t quite have enough to catch him. Symmonds edged Robinson at the finish, crossing the line first in 1:45.86. Robinson finished as the runner-up in 1:45.97, with former University of Washington standout and 2006 NCAA Outdoor champion Ryan Brown third in 1:46.67. Christian Smith, who finished third at last year’s Trials, finished fourth at 1:46.92.

Clark wins women’s two-lapper
Three-time Olympian Hazel Clark won her fifth career USA Outdoor 800m title and the fourth in the last five years by crossing the finish line first in this afternoon’s final in 2:00.79.

To continue reading, click here.

SEATTLE — On a day that dawned with clear blue skies, the inaugural Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle Marathon & Half- Marathon lived up to the hype, kicking off the Seafair season and debuting as Seattle’s largest running event. On Saturday, 25,000 runners from all 50 states and 14 countries participated in the races, which ran from Tukwila to downtown Seattle.

Some of the days top performances came from Kenya’s Elija Nyabuti, who set a new Washington state record for the half-marathon with a time of 1 hour, 5 minutes, 14 seconds, and from American Michelle Suszek who won the women’s marathon in 2:38:37, a full four minutes faster than her previous best.

“I wanted to run my own race today and wanted to break the 2:40 mark,” said Suszek, who entered the race just a week ago and recently started working with new coach Lyle Knudson after a disappointing finish in April’s Country Music Marathon.

The top five finishers in the women’s marathon were Americans. Two-time Chicago Marathon champion Berhane Adere of Ethiopia won the women’s half-marathon in 1:11:19.

To continue reading, click here.

img src=”http://running-advice.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/running-advice-bug.jpg” alt=”running-advice-bug” title=”running-advice-bug” width=”150″ height=”126″ class=”alignleft size-full wp-image-2418″ />Episode 18 is here and this week, we take a break from the more serious topics we consider and get somewhat . . . silly. Runners love beer. How about an event that brings runners and beer together? And yes, we mean drinking WHILE running.

This week Coach Dean tells us about the little known, but highly competitive, track event called the Beer Mile. It sounds like something that might make me sick, but I’d be willing to give it a try.

Keep in mind that you should drink responsibly, don’t drink in public places where alcohol is prohibited, don’t run on the road after drinking, and never drink and drive.

This video is part of our Desert Series, in which Coaches Joe English and Dean Hebert get their lips smackin’ about all things marathon running. There are over 30 episodes in the series and they come out every week on www.running-advice.com.

To watch the video, just click the play button in the video window below.

There’s much more coming. We’ve filmed over 30 episodes in this series and we’ll be rolling them out each week. To visit our video page with links to all of the episodes in the series, click here.

Running Advice and News
www.running-advice.com

Coach Joe English

This is week five in our continuing series of favorite speed workouts. If you’re looking for the earlier posts, they are all filed in the category called “workouts”.

Workout: Interval Pyramids or Pyramid Workdouts

Workout Summary: The pyramid is really a whole class of workouts in which you will run progressively longer intervals followed by progressively shorter ones. If you were to chart out the distances of the intervals, they look like a pyramid with the distances getting longer on one side (200M, 400M, 800M, 1,200M) and then getting shorter on the other (1,200M, 800M, 400M, 200M). What’s nice about this type of workout is that the progressively longer nature of the up side of the pyramid means will mean that each interval generates more running while fatigued (a good thing) and the down side allows you to mentally get relief as the intervals get shorter.

Pyramids are also nice, because they can be configured in many different ways to keep them fresh and fun. For example, on days when you are looking to extenuate distance, you might start the intervals longer (1,200, 1,600, 2,000) and on days when looking for more speed start them shorter (50M, 100M, 200M, 400M). They aren’t as boring a running countless reps of the same interval over and over again either.

To continue reading, click here.